Knowledge of, attitudes toward and experience about child abuse among dentists in Isfahan

Dentists are in a unique position to recognize and report child abuse (CA)، as head، face and neck injuries occur in more than half of cases of CA. The aim of the present study was to assess the knowledge of، attitudes toward and experience about CA and neglect among dentists.

A cross-sectional study by means of a multi-stage sampling was carried out among dentists working in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences، private offices and dental clinics in Isfahan، Iran. Data were gathered through a self-administered questionnaire from 134 general dental practitioners and 40 dental specialists. Spearman، Pearson، one-way ANOVA and Friedman analyses were applied at a confidence interval of 95%.

Dentists showed insufficient knowledge on different types and signs of CA. Dentists had positive attitudes toward the diagnosis of CA and demonstrated great interest in reporting suspected CA cases to the authorities (the mean attitude score was 15. 1 of 20). Female dentists showed more positive attitudes than their male colleagues (p value = 0. 03). Of dentists، 11. 5% reported to have had suspicions of CA and neglect and only one of them (5%) had reported some of these cases to social services. The most important barriers towards reporting suspected cases to social services were uncertainty of the occurrence of CA and lack of adequate knowledge about CA.

Under the limitations of the present study، dentists had low knowledge about، positive attitudes toward and insufficient knowledge about child abuse. It is suggested that special courses on child abuse be incorporated into dental curricula and into continuing education and scientific conference programs for dentists.